An Omaha developer is proposing a 60-unit apartment project near Berkley Riverfront Park that’s intended to help meet the demand for affordable housing downtown.

Cornerstone Associates, which recently opened the 531 Grand market-rate apartment project in the River Market, is requesting federal tax credits administered by the Missouri Housing Development Commission to help finance the $13 million project.

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The Cornerstone development proposal calls for a four-story building with 22 one-bedroom; 31, two-bedroom, and seven,three-bedroom units.

Rents would range from $485- to $785 for one-bedrooms; $570- to $925, two-bedrooms, and $645- to $1,000 for a three-bedroom.

The apartments would be limited to people earning 40- to 60 percent of the area median income.

The project would be located east of the new Bar K dog park and cafe under construction, and west of the partly-opened 451-unit, market-rate Union apartment project developed by Indianapolis-based Flaherty & Collins.

It would be near the planned extension of the streetcar to Berkley Park. The developer also said the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority has agreed to provide a new bus stop within a quarter mile of the project.
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Not a fan of an entire affordable housing building next to the nice market rate building. I mean I get affordable housing can't have every Bell and whistle amenity but all affordable housing tends to turn into a mess.

KCPowercat wrote:Not a fan of an entire affordable housing building next to the nice market rate building. I mean I get affordable housing can't have every Bell and whistle amenity but all affordable housing tends to turn into a mess.

KCPowercat wrote:Not a fan of an entire affordable housing building next to the nice market rate building. I mean I get affordable housing can't have every Bell and whistle amenity but all affordable housing tends to turn into a mess.

Yeah, they better be careful with this project. I thought the port authority would need higher end, more dense and market rate apartments for the riverfront to help fund the streetcar extension.

KCPowercat wrote:Not a fan of an entire affordable housing building next to the nice market rate building. I mean I get affordable housing can't have every Bell and whistle amenity but all affordable housing tends to turn into a mess.

Yeah, they better be careful with this project. I thought the port authority would need higher end, more dense and market rate apartments for the riverfront to help fund the streetcar extension.

There are like 12 parcels for development. Each developer is agreeing to pay into the riverfront streetcar.

KCPowercat wrote:Not a fan of an entire affordable housing building next to the nice market rate building. I mean I get affordable housing can't have every Bell and whistle amenity but all affordable housing tends to turn into a mess.

Yeah, they better be careful with this project. I thought the port authority would need higher end, more dense and market rate apartments for the riverfront to help fund the streetcar extension.

There are like 12 parcels for development. Each developer is agreeing to pay into the riverfront streetcar.

That's good. I still thought the riverfront would try to get at least 6-7 story buildings in there. They have a finite amount of space to develop and create a dense enough neighborhood to warrant the extension of the streetcar.

GRID wrote: still thought the riverfront would try to get at least 6-7 story buildings in there. They have a finite amount of space to develop and create a dense enough neighborhood to warrant the extension of the streetcar.

Go review the plan from their website. It's mostly low buildings in their concept plans except for a couple of parcels on the east end

KCPowercat wrote:Not a fan of an entire affordable housing building next to the nice market rate building. I mean I get affordable housing can't have every Bell and whistle amenity but all affordable housing tends to turn into a mess.

This is a gross overstatement KCPowercat.
One-fourth of the buildings in the River Market have been affordable for the past 20 years.
You can't see a difference from their market-rate neighbors.

As Dave mentioned, there are many low-moderate income apartment buildings scattered throughout the downtown loop and the crossroads.
There too, no one would know, unless they know.

We've got to stop the demonizing of affordable housing.
It's bad form and detrimental to creating a city that works.

GRID wrote: still thought the riverfront would try to get at least 6-7 story buildings in there. They have a finite amount of space to develop and create a dense enough neighborhood to warrant the extension of the streetcar.

Go review the plan from their website. It's mostly low buildings in their concept plans except for a couple of parcels on the east end

KCPowercat wrote:Not a fan of an entire affordable housing building next to the nice market rate building. I mean I get affordable housing can't have every Bell and whistle amenity but all affordable housing tends to turn into a mess.

This is a gross overstatement KCPowercat.
One-fourth of the buildings in the River Market have been affordable for the past 20 years.
You can't see a difference from their market-rate neighbors.

As Dave mentioned, there are many low-moderate income apartment buildings scattered throughout the downtown loop and the crossroads.
There too, no one would know, unless they know.

We've got to stop the demonizing of affordable housing.
It's bad form and detrimental to creating a city that works.

Yes to this.

The term affordable housing tends to be conflated with concentrated, 1970's era high-rise Housing Authority projects and they couldn't be any more different.

KCTOGA wrote:Omaha has built several nice 12 to 15 story appt. towers on their riverfront. Think we should demand at least a 7 story minimum the rest of the way here.

That's all I'm saying. That is such prime real estate with limited space to develop with no NIMBY's nearby. Four story buildings seems pretty inefficient to me especially considering the cost to bring the streetcar down there. I would think 7 floors should be the minimum in that area with 8-12 being ideal.

KCTOGA wrote:Omaha has built several nice 12 to 15 story appt. towers on their riverfront. Think we should demand at least a 7 story minimum the rest of the way here.

That's all I'm saying. That is such prime real estate with limited space to develop with no NIMBY's nearby. Four story buildings seems pretty inefficient to me especially considering the cost to bring the streetcar down there. I would think 7 floors should be the minimum in that area with 8-12 being ideal.

While I definitely don't think this move maximizes potential tax revenues, I think there's something to be said about diversifying income levels in a part of town that is very likely to see an imminent development boom. Plus, I'd think it lessens the impact (to some degree) of "gentrification" in other parts of town that desperately need re-development.

KCTOGA wrote:Omaha has built several nice 12 to 15 story appt. towers on their riverfront. Think we should demand at least a 7 story minimum the rest of the way here.

I would rather have the PortKC rendering of the riverfront over Omaha's riverfront any day of the week. Omaha's riverfront is the opposite of a dense, energetic neighborhood. Very suburban.

We should get higher building heights, I'm just saying that I will be very disappointed if our riverfront turns out to be anything like Omaha's

The recreational side of Omaha's riverfront is quite nice and KC could really use something similar. However, I agree 100% on the development of Omaha's riverfront of which half is surface parking lots. I would take what KC has built so far over what Omaha has done in a heartbeat. I would just like to see the buildings be more in the 6-9 floor range rather than 4-5. But even four story buildings spread across the entire riverfront is better than a couple of 12 story towers surrounded by open space.

Hopefully KC ends up with a similar, but larger and slightly more dense residential neighborhood than the one that has recently developed in St Paul.